Saturday, April 19, 2014

April 14-20 HORRIBLE WEATHER CONTINUES

ITS GONNA BLOW and RAIN RIGHT UP TO TIME FOR CAPT MARTY TO GO BACK TO WORK.......

Incredibly, there is still a GALE WARNING and COASTAL FLOOD WARNING POSTED

I offer up apologies to all that follow this blog and I also offer up an apology for the trips that got cancelled. When its winter and its supposed to be COLD, we don't mind fishing in the cold...... In summer and fall when fishing is good, no one minds fishing in the RAIN..... As far as the WIND goes, when it's over 20 knots, its always bad.

With all that being said, and since it's mid-April and Inshore Fishing is slowly coming back to life, COLD, RAIN, or WIND can all by themselves RUIN Inshore Fishing..... And then this week, MY WEEK OFF of course, we get a TRIPLE WHAMMY.

COLD

RAIN

WIND

As far as I can tell, Tuesday is going to be pretty. Quite naturally, that is my First Day back at Hatteras!

Looking ahead, I will get home on April 29 and I should be ready to go. Also I'll be home until May 20 so lets hope three things happen. The Menhaden show up. The Atlantic Bonito show up. And the Cobia show up. Capt Tuggy and I are ready to go get them!

Monday, April 14, 2014

April 13- BLUE CATFISH HEAVEN on the PEE DEE RIVER






Right this minute I am sitting by a fire pit on Morrow Mountain so this report is going to brief... It will pack some "WOW FACTOR" though..... So this morning I fished the Pee Dee River with Robbie Burr and needless to say, Robbie is everything the Internet says he is...... Nowadays, that's a mighty fine compliment! My 4 hours was spent catching White Shad and Blue Catfish. In the first hour, I equalled my previous "lifetime" total of White Shad with Robbie. Between the two of us, we caught 8 Shad from 2-4 lbs each. Good eating I said..... Catfish bait Robbie said......  After we left the Shad, Robbie put out a spread of cut Shad baits and 10 minutes later I was holding a 42 lb Blue Catfish. Routine. It takes a 70 lber to excite this Captain. Meanwhile THIS CAPTAIN was texting Columbo as fast as I could..... The next 2 hours saw a slow, but steady parade of 28 lb to 35 lb Blue Cats.... I needed one for my campfire meal, but I needed a 10 pounder.... Robbie assured me that we'd get one. Sure enough, last spot and our last bite and I catch a 12 lb Blue Catfish that was our dinner guest tonight at Morrow Mountain State Park! Total Catch for the Day: 7 Blue Catfish from 12 to 42 lbs each and 8 White Shad from 2 to 4 lbs each

Sunday, April 6, 2014

April 6- Eastern NC Shad Tour

I don't have time for the long version, so here's a short summary. It was cold and blustery. The Rivers were high. I fished 3 places on the Tar River and one spot on the Neuse. At times it was a struggle. There was one flurry at Old Sparta when I caught 15 Hickory Shad in 20 minutes. Much later at Rocky Mount, I caught 3 White Shad in an hour. Other that, it was a struggle. Total Catch for the Day: 22 Hickory Shad up to 2 lbs and 3 White Shad up to 3 lbs



Friday, April 4, 2014

Dog Shark Bites--DELICIOUS



Okay, here it is...... You guys ain't going to believe this but here goes. Yesterday John Boy and I kept 6 Spiny Dog Sharks. We cleaned them. The amount of meat derived from a Dog Shark seemed a little slack, considering each one weighed about 7 lbs...... Anyway, with 3 fish each, both John Boy and I had plenty of meat. If anyone wants to try this, I'd recommend killing at least 3 Dog Sharks.... Anyway, my first impression was how damn white the freshly cleaned meat is.... It is the cleanest, whitest meat I've ever seen from any animal, reptile, or fish. It is so incredibly white it looks cooked..... Okay, last night I put a ziplock bag of boneless, skinless Dog Shark meat in my refrigerator. No salt, no soak, no nothing.... So tonight at 9pm, 26 hours later, I pulled out 4 pieces of Dog Shark flesh and cut it up in 4"X 1" fingers. I soaked the fingers in milk for 10 minutes. I rolled the fingers in seafood breader. I fried the fingers in a hot oil bath..... Let cool. Made a cocktail sauce...... Walked into the Living Room where my beautiful wife was watching TV. I offered her a fried finger and did not tell her what it was. She ate it and said "Delicious". I said really? I re-entered the kitchen and tried it myself. It is Sooo Damn Good, so damn light. It is indescribable. If you want a "fishy" fish, the one ain't for you. Whiter and Lighter than Flounder. I don't know what else to say. I see why the Dog Shark is one of our most important and heavily regulated Commercial Fish on the US East Coast..... I highly recommend everyone keep a few Dog Sharks this Spring and take them home and fry them up!

April 4- Red Drum in the Cape Lookout Surf

Early this morning I got invited over to Cape Lookout so Buddy could prove to me that a Hickory Shad could be caught in the surf on Fly Tackle in Carteret County! I had seen the pictures, but I wanted.... I needed.... I yearned to see this with my own two eyes.... So, this morning, I grabbed my waders and we made the 10 minute run over to the Eastern Beach. We anchored up and we walked over to the Ocean. Well, Buddy threw his fly 250 times and found no takers.. After watching the first 25 casts failed, I struck out to the south looking for a fishy-looking slough that might hold a Drum or two... What I found was one pretty slough after another. They all looked good! I'd cast a few times and then walk some more..... I look at this Beach all the time from the water. It looks completely different from foot back out to sea.....Anyway, eventually a slough formed parallel to the Beach. Here, after a half mile walk, I saw a flash and a roll of reddish gold. I backed off and made a cast. Bingo. After a long give and take battle on 8# spin, I finally slipped my hand under a 24" Red Drum. Buddy heard my "Whoops and Ahhhh Ooooo Ahhhhssss" and started walking my way. When he got there, I got the go ahead to catch his Red Drum, or "our limit". I quickly hooked up another Red Drum. After landing him and snapping a pic I asked Buddy why he wasn't casting.... "Because I had a Cownose Ray failure" he replied... What? Evidently, Buddy had snagged a Cownose and wasn't quick enough to realize what was happening. His attempt to pop the leader actually popped the connection from Fly Line to his Backing.... Ouch.... Somewhere out in the Ocean there's a Cownose Ray dragging around $169 worth of fly line behind him. That was it. OVER..... Total Catch for the Day: 2 Red Drum at 24" each

Thursday, April 3, 2014

April 3- Spiny Dog Heaven




As long as this wind keeps honking, I guess I should just consider myself lucky to have anglers that are satisfied to catch Dog Sharks. Really now, they are numerous. They pull hard. And, supposedly they are great eating. At this time, they are one of NC's most regulated commercial fisherys. Our "Horndogs" support the local pub favorite "Fish and Chips" that is so famous and popular all across Great Britain as well as other parts of Europe. They long ago fished out their inshore/ nearshore tasty Shark species, the Tope.... Now they rely on imported Dog Sharks from the US East Coast..... So today, JohnBoy wanted to pursue Bullet Mackerel, but it's blowing a "Pops Cod".... So we went Dogging instead. Two things were different: #1 JohnBoy played with ultralight spinning tackle. As a matter of fact, we each caught 10 lb Spiny Dogs on 4# test mono. It was great fun but we lost some tackle as well. JohnBoy and I also discussed the possibility of eating some Dog Shark Meat. We decides to keep 6 Dog Sharks for the table. I'm on my way to help JohnBoy clean our quarry as soon as I post this! I will report later on the quality and taste of  "Beaufort style Fish and Chips" Total Catch for the Day: 22 Spiny Dog Sharks from 5 to 11 lbs each

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

April 2- Dogsharks in the Wind






If only the wind would've held off for 5-6 more hours..... If only the timing of the NWS Marine Forecast would've been accurate...... I know (knew) exactly where there is (was) a pile of Red Drum and Bluefish. But, it's a long ride from Beaufort Inlet and with a 20 kt SW Wind blowing on us all the way out there AND a 20 kt SW Wind blowing on our "other" side all the way home, it was consensus opinion of the Adults on the Crew to come up with a Back Up Plan..... Fortunately, the primary mission of this trip was for 9 yr old John Jr to catch some FISH. Action was our primary target and plenty of it! Too bad, if the wind would've stayed light and seas 1-2 ft, I could've made everyone happy.... Daggone it, it was blowing 15-20 at 7am. so, to make a long story short, Kevin and Big John had to amuse themselves while John Jr shagged Dog Sharks.... The other bad part was, there were no Drum fillets to carry home. Just great memories of bent rods, singing drags, and Shark after Shark after Shark. And the weather inside the Cape Lookout Bight was Beautiful. Any question as to the fishing was answered 10 seconds after Kevin's speck rig hit the bottom. His rod took a deep bend and it was Game On..... After 20+ Spiny Dog Sharks we went looking for Blowtoads and Sea Mullets. We searched from Cape Lookout to Morehead City. We found a few fish, but nothing great. Finally, I rolled the dice on a Top-Secret school of Red Drum in a very different environment than where we'd been fishing. After a long run, when we arrived, there was another boat sitting in "the Spot" and that fishery was bombed out..... Those fish were surely victims of the Information Super Highway. The Internet. Poor little school of Red Drum can't hide from Al Gore's all-knowing, all-seeing, no more secrets Fishing "Inter" Network. It's amazing that a guy with a Laptop Computer sitting at a Base Camp on Antarctica can see and recognize backgrounds on Fishing Pictures posted on the Internet and figure out exactly WHERE he needs to go to catch a fish... Well, maybe not. But you can certainly figure out where they WERE....... Total Catch for the Day: 24 Spiny Dogsharks from 4 to 12 lbs, 3 Smooth Dogsharks from 4 to 12 lbs, 1 Southern Sea Mullet, 1 Atlantic Croaker, and 1 Spot

*** I am still researching John Jr's dark-colored Dogshark to see if it was just a darker than normal Spiny Dogshark or if it was a true "Black Dogshark" which would be a NEW SPECIES for Top Water Charters...*** 

John Jr boldly commented, "No Comment !!!!"


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

April 1- Fishing Fools Day

Heck, I didn't get to go. Chris and Ryan caught 60 Bluefish, 2 Red Drum, and 18 Black Sea Bass. More interesting, they saw a Thresher Shark or two airing it out..... Tomorrow morning John, John Jr, and I are headed out. I hope that by tomorrow night I will be posting pics of little John smiling again... What if this time he's standing proudly over a 100 lb Thresher Shark! Why not? If Capt Marty can make it happen. I do remember that Thresher Shark was excellent quality on the grill! I need to check and see if they're legal right now because I will be going after them!

Check back tomorrow and remember, April 3, April 4, April 5, April 6, and April 7 are OPEN for FISHING and EXCELLENT for CATCHING